Coach Bob Toledo wants to 'finish the job' he started at Tulane, getting to a bowl game

There is one thing that will show Tulane's football team is back on track after eight consecutive mediocre-to-poor seasons: a bowl appearance.

John McCusker/The Times-PicayuneTulane president Scott Cowen and football coach Bob Toledo are hoping the team's fortunes have turned for the better.

No one is more aware of that going into this season than Green Wave Coach Bob Toledo. Being competitive and improving team stats aren’t enough anymore, according to him. The rub is Tulane hasn’t been to a bowl game since 2002, when it defeated Hawaii 36-28 in the Hawaii Bowl.

“Now it’s no longer good enough just to be competitive in a lot of peoples’ opinions, including mine,” Toledo said last week. “It’s time to win, and I’ll say it. We’ve got to win. It’s time to win, it’s time to get to a bowl game.”

That watermark is seven wins. Tulane added a 13th game to its 2011 schedule, and to be better than.500 the Green Wave will have to win three more than it did in 2010.

Tulane went 4-8 overall and 2-6 in Conference USA last season. That matched the win total of Toledo’s first year in 2007, showing the difficulty Toledo has had trying to gain traction in his four seasons.

Taking time

But Toledo isn’t alone. Tulane’s lack of success in football stretches far beyond one particular coach. Since 1980, the Green Wave has had only six winning seasons. It has had eight coaches in that period.

According to Greg Davis Jr., a longtime assistant coach and current running backs/co-offensive coordinator, there is no one reason why it is so difficult for the Green Wave to produce victories.

“I think in different eras there are different things going on,” said Davis, who has coached at Tulane since 2000.

Trying to get settled in a conference was a battle that Mack Brown fought in his Tulane coaching stint from 1985 to 1987, Davis said. Now Brown has become a national championship coach at Texas. He went 11-23 at Tulane.

Davis’ father, Greg Davis Sr. went 14-31 from 1988 to 1991 at Tulane. In that era, there were several other notable coaches having similar rocky starts.

“(About the time) when my dad was hired here at Tulane, Frank Beamer was hired at Virginia Tech, Dan McCarney was hired at Iowa State. My dad was let go in year four, the other two were almost fired in year five,” Davis said. “But they gave them one more year and all the sudden they sustained it. Now Beamer’s been there 20-something years, Dan McCarney was there 10, 11 years whatever at Iowa State and went on a five-year bowl deal, but they built it the right way. It takes a little time to do it, but Coach Toledo is doing it the right way … so it takes a little time.”

It took Beamer seven years to send the Hokies to a bowl game. In 1992, Virginia Tech stumbled to 2-8 in Beamer’s sixth season. In 1993, the Hokies broke out to a 9-3 mark and a berth in the Independence Bowl. That bowl game sparked an 11-year postseason run.

More time was exactly what McCarney needed at Iowa State also. He was hired in 1995 and struggled to maintain momentum in his first four years. In 1999, the Cyclones were 4-7 and still short of any bowl aspirations. But in 2000, the program broke through with a 9-3 record and a bowl appearance.

The Toledo staff is hoping for a similar turnaround.

Want meets need

“I just want to finish the job I started,” Toledo said, referring his original five-year contract.

Toledo received a contract extension after an intense performance review last December by Tulane President Scott Cowen and Athletic Director Rick Dickson. But there is a feeling the football program will have to produce a winning season to ensure job security.

Tulane schedule

Date Opponent Time

Sept. 3 SE Louisiana 2:30 p.m.

Sept. 10 Tulsa* 2:30 p.m.

Sept. 17 at UAB* TBA

Sept. 24 at Duke TBA

Oct. 1 at Army 11 a.m.

Oct. 8 Syracuse 7 p.m.

Oct. 15 UTEP* 2:30 p.m.

Oct. 22 Memphis* (HC) 2:30 p.m.

Oct. 29 at East Carolina* TBA

Nov. 5 at SMU* 2 p.m.

Nov. 10 (Thurs.) Houston* 7 p.m.

Nov. 19 at Rice* TBA

Nov. 26 at Hawai'i 10 p.m.

Co-offensive coordinator Mark Hutson said the team is close to accomplishing the feat.

“There is just a sense of building something here, feeling like we’re close and seeing it come to pass,” Hutson said.

There’s no denying it is a huge jump to make. Tulane made considerable improvements in statistics last season only to see those increases amount to just a one-victory improvement from 2009.

It’s possible institutional patience might not help Toledo; it didn’t help Toledo’s predecessor, Chris Scelfo. Though Scelfo posted the second-most wins in Tulane history (37), it took him eight years to accomplish the feat. Scelfo is tied for second with Andy Pilney for most seasons as a Tulane football coach. Only Clark Shaughnessy (1915-20, 1922-26) coached more years.

Scelfo had success early with two winning seasons in his first four years, but he couldn’t get the program over .500 in the next four tries. Hurricane Katrina struck just before his second-to-last season.

Davis said the current program is close to turning the proverbial corner.

“I think our job every year is to produce wins, so that doesn’t change,” Davis said. “I know that the university put a lot of faith in Coach Toledo and took their time and looked at it and said, ‘Here is what has been happening and here is how it has improved.’ And so every year we feel that way. I don’t know if this year is any different. I come to work the same way every single year, so I do think Coach has a plan, a five-year plan, we have built to that point and you can look at the results and say OK, I see the improvements, I see what’s going on, it needs to come to fruition. The most frustrating thing as a coach is to know you have these things in place and then it doesn’t happen. I don’t think there is any more pressure this year than any other year.”

Players such as linebacker Trent Mackey aren’t taking a long view on where the program is and where it is going. He has eyes only for the 2011 campaign.

“It’s a lot on the line, but I try to tell the guys to take it one day at a time,” Mackey said. “You have to relax, take your mind off of everything and focus on the task at hand.”

Or as Toledo succinctly puts it: “We need to win.”

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Tammy Nunez can be reached at tnunez@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3405.